7:30 a.m.
Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:00 a.m.
Chairperson's Welcome & Opening Remarks

Chris Gay, Principal
BRIDGE CONSULTING

8:15 a.m.

How To Use Strategic Internal Communication To Connect Employees To Your Organization’s Strategy And Help Them Deliver On The Customer Promise

In 2008, Nationwide Insurance made the customer experience the core of its corporate strategy. As cultural change activities helped redefine the company’s On Your Side brand promise, company associates were exposed to a new set of principles to guide behaviors. These behaviors evolved into a set of four actions that were adopted as a guide for personal interaction with both customers and fellow associates.

In this session, follow Nationwide’s journey to help associates understand how to deliver personalized customer experiences. In particular, you’ll hear how the role of the Chief Customer Advocate helped associates adopt an “I Care” attitude.

This session will showcase how your own organization can utilize and incorporate:

• Employee engagement in your customer service mission
• Lessons learned from a case study of IABC Gold Quill-winning online communications
• Ways to foster unique personal outreach to your associates
• Internal communication which will integrate strategy, brand and the customer experience

Mark Mills, ABC, Senior Consultant – Internal Communications
NATIONWIDE INSURANCE

9:00 a.m.

Building And Utilizing Various Internal Communication Channels To Ensure Better Message Delivery To A Diverse, Global Workforce

Mohawk Industries has grown dramatically through acquisition of selected companies whose businesses complemented the core expertise that Mohawk has developed. Today, the company is a “family of brands” organization employing nearly 30,000 people, with operations that span the globe and are actively being developed to meet the flooring needs of customers worldwide.

Being a “company of companies,” Mohawk has numerous challenges, including in the area of internal communications. For many years, the corporate communications task was largely handled by one person. In June of 2009, the company began the process of building what we now hope will become a world-class corporate communications department.

In this session, you will learn how the communications team, in just the past year, has begun to identify, refine and formalize methods and systems to create and utilize various communication channels for better message delivery to their diverse working environments. In some cases, this has meant understanding the verbal culture and enhancing the quality of that channel, and in other cases, it means developing methods from scratch.

While your environment may make it challenging to gather metrics, you will leave this session with tips on how to:

• Utilize proven methods to validate the effectiveness of your message delivery
• Evaluate levels of engagement
• Coordinate the right channels and develop messages that further your company’s strategic goals

Diane Raulston, Communications Specialist
MOHAWK INDUSTRIES, INC.

Stephen Grass, Communications Manager
MOHAWK INDUSTRIES, INC.

9:45 a.m.

BREAK-OUT BLITZ!

Network And Discuss Strategic Internal Communication Challenges With Your Fellow Conference Attendees

This session will open the conversation by connecting you with other conference participants and gain greater understanding into many similar issues, concerns, and challenges that your peers are also facing. Become acquainted with your fellow conference attendees in this fun and fast-paced forum!

10:45 a.m.

Numbers Don’t Lie: Managing Communication To Drive Better Performance And Shareholder Value

It’s an elusive goal for many communication professionals. Determining how to deliver results that clearly impact the organization’s bottom line. Unfortunately, it’s often too easy for communication people to get lost in the everyday output they have delivered for years – instead of focusing on what really matters – helping your company sustainably improve performance by engaging employees. The difference: focusing on outcomes more than outputs.

This lively and provocative discussion will reveal what progressive communication pros are doing to measurably add value – in effect, significantly changing the paradigm of how communication functions have traditionally operated. The results speak for themselves:

• FedEx’s internal communication department led a project that improved U.S. exports by 23%, with a return on investment of 1,660%
• ITT Corporation’s employee communication function helped improve quality by 40% and
  created a new model for implementing lean transformations across the globe
• ConAgra Foods’ communication leaders reduced safety incidents by 30%, improved
  yield loss by 25%, and reduced other supply chain costs by more than 60% in strategic
  manufacturing and warehouse operations

• Shift from performing traditional output-based work to helping leaders address
  communication breakdowns that impede progress
• Help managers become better leaders and enable employees to be catalysts for improving
  performance
• Find a place for existing communication tools in the overall mix of solutions and use them surgically to improve outcomes

Bob Kula, External Affairs and Communication
CONAGRA FOODS, INC.

Jim Shaffer, Leader
JIM SHAFFER GROUP

11:30 a.m.

How To Strategically Infuse Social Media Into Your Traditional Employee Communications Program To Drive Team Engagement At Every Level Of Your Organization

Over the past 85 years, Grainger has established itself as a leading distributor of the products businesses and institutions need to keep their facilities running. Their tag line,
“For the Ones who Get It Done”, reflects the passion their 18,000 employees around the world have in serving customers and communities every day and during emergencies.

The company serves customers through multiple channels – branches, the phone, and online. To have empowered and energized team members at every level, Grainger has
used multiple vehicles over the years to highlight the company’s vision and celebrate team members who get it done. Over the past few years, Grainger has used social media vehicles internally to advance the dialogue.

Don’t miss this inside look at how Grainger communicates to its employees in the United States. You’ll see how your organization can also:

• Best use social media vehicles in conjunction with face-to-face and other communication channels
• Leverage senior leadership to tell the story and drive communications results
• Set the right expectations with leaders and employees
• Celebrate community programs and events using social media to further employee engagement and the internal brand
• Further change management during a crisis using the right mix of communication vehicles

12:15 p.m.
Lunch On Your Own -- But Not Alone!

Join a group of your colleagues for lunch with an informal discussion facilitated by one of our expert speakers. Take this opportunity to join others in a small, interactive group setting to network and brainstorm solutions to your most pressing internal communications concerns.

1:45 p.m.

Leading In The 21st Century: From Exhausted To Effective

In this session, you will hear about an innovative, research-based approach designed to increase employee engagement by building and exercising 21st century leadership competencies. Managers still play an important and vital role on employee performance and retention. Now, see how a long list of possible managerial activities and competencies was reduced to the “vital few accelerators” that have the most impact on improving both employee engagement and leadership effectiveness. This approach ensures that managers remember fundamental activities that create positive energy by recognizing and appreciating what is working (success), which produces greater engagement and momentum for change– ultimately achieving “breakthrough” increases in organizational results.

Specifically you will gain an understanding of:

• The “vital few accelerators” that drive outcomes of employee engagement and leadership effectiveness
• How to apply the “vital few accelerators” on-the-job
• The value of using an appreciative inquiry-based approach to leadership

Jim Trinka, PhD, Director, Air Traffic Organization Training & Development
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

2:30 p.m.



Getting Your Customer-Centered Culture On The Right Track By Coordinating Your Marketing And Employee Communications Efforts: Proven Strategies to Communicate With A Unionized Workforce

When he signed the Pacific Railroad Act in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln marked the beginning of a legendary company – the Union Pacific Railroad (UP). Today, UP operates in the western two-thirds of the nation, while linking to the eastern United States, Mexico and Canada.

Its 43,000 mostly unionized employees serve 25,000 customers, including steamship lines, vehicle manufacturers, agricultural companies, utilities, intermodal companies and chemical manufacturers. A Fortune 150 company, UP’s network delivers the energy, food, raw materials, durable and consumer goods that support the nation’s growth.

In the past three years, UP’s performance has achieved a record-setting pace, providing service that is winning customers who shipped by other methods, primarily truck, to ensure consistent, timely and reliable deliveries. Building on its success, UP is coordinating its marketing communication and employee communications efforts. Critical to the external marketing communication is its alignment with and reinforcement of the railroad’s internal,
customer-centered culture.

During this session, you will hear about strategies and tactics that helped this high-end performing organization succeed. Specifically, you will learn proven ways to:

• Get employees to understand the strategy and deliver the promise made to new and existing customers
• Implement an employee engagement campaign as a business asset to positively affect the bottom line
• Translate the strategy into specific employee behaviors
• Involve corporate communications, marketing and sales, and operations to engage employees and drive results

Anne Walsh, Director-Employee Communications
UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD

3:15 p.m.

Afternoon Refreshment & Networking Break

3:30 p.m.

Incorporating Social Media Into Your Workplace: How To Convince Your Senior Leaders And Empower Your Staff To Spread Your Organization's Message

Social media is often perceived as a waste of time or yet another task. The National Wildlife Federation has found that this isn't always the case. Their social media strategy empowers a number of staff and programs to find their niche while using social media. They have discovered that when done right, social media can greatly improve the efficiency of internal and external communication.

• Measure results when each program has a different goal
• Choose the right tools that make internal communications better
• Convince senior leaders the value of social media
• Empower the right staff to spread your organization's message

Danielle Brigida, Digital Marketing Manager
NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION

Michael Sola, Senior Director, Information Technology
NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION

4:15 p.m.

How To Create And Use A Social Media Strategy To Unite A Global Workforce, Strengthen Employee Engagement And Reinforce Your Brand: Building An Online Community For Employees

Employees around the globe at NetApp wanted more voice within the organization - with each other and with leadership. They wanted their questions answered and ideas shared. Using this feedback, NetApp built an online community, NetApp Live, uniting its global workforce and reinforcing its brand.

Learn from NetApp’s journey, #1 on Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For in 2009 and #7 on Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For in 2010, how to build an online community for employees, including:

• Creating a cross-functional team to drive the initiative
• Conducting an extensive RFP process
• Developing social media guidelines and policies
• Identifying the people and skills needed to manage the site
• Analyzing the metrics to assess the impact and demonstrate your value
• Seeing the value of having Millennial’s work on social media behind the firewall

In this session, you will discover why NetApp realized that social media is an investment in their organization’s future, and how it should be an investment in your own organization to maximize the effectiveness of your internal communication efforts.

Francesca Karpel, Senior Manager, Internal Communications
NETAPP

5:00 p.m.

End of Day One

5:10 p.m.

Networking Reception: Please Join Us!

We invite you to join us for a drink as you relax with your peers. All conference attendees and speakers are welcome to join us for this special opportunity to continue networking. Don’t miss this chance to benchmark new ideas over complimentary drinks!

Sign up during the day for dinner with a group. Take advantage of Washington, DC’s fine dining while you continue to network with your colleagues.